The New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival, Knitting, Spinning, and busy-ness!

Last weekend was the NH Sheep & Wool Festival at the Deerfield fairgrounds.  Two knitting friends and I headed up on a very wet Saturday morning - excited, though, to be sure. Shortly after our arrival the rain let up and it actually turned out to be a nice day.  The clouds kept the temperature cool enough to wear hand-knit items - always a plus at a fiber event!

We had a great time looking at all of the vendors.  This is a fairly large fair for a state the size of NH.  There are some vendors from outside the area, but most are local to New England. 

I bought two skeins of sock yarn.  One was a yarn I intended to buy.  It is a skein of Opal sock yarn.  So many people rave about how wonderful it is so I really want to try it out.  The other was an impulse buy from Decadence yarn.  The color is beautiful and will make a pair of socks less busy than my usual self-striping yarn.  I bought a lovely braid of fiber from Holiday yarns that is aqua with lots of stellina (that’s the sparkling stuff) in it.  The other fiber purchase is from Friends in Fiber which is not far from where I live.  I love their stuff and this is a batt of merino silk.  I’ve not spun from a batt before and it spins very different so that will be a good learning experience.

Off the Needles

 I have one finished object this week.  It is my Entangled Vines cardigan by Alana Dakos - http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/entangled-vines 
in Madelinetosh Vintage in the Magenta colorway.  I love how it came out and it fits perfectly.

 

On the Needles
This week was all about finishing the above cardigan.  To that aim, I took a break from the Rowan afghan KAL.  I will pick that back up this weekend.  This week I also cast on the Giraffe by Susan B. Anderson -http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/giraffe-10.  Although knitting stuffed animals has never appealed to me, I have a student who is obsessed with giraffes and I think she will really like it.  

Spinning
I’ve finished singles of a polwarth /silk blend that I will ply this week.  I also started spinning some of the batt from Friends in Fiber. More to come on that later.

Life
May is a ridiculously busy month.  Concerts galore and graduations.  We had our spring concert on Wednesday and all went well.  My stepdaughter’s college graduation is Saturday so this will be a busy weekend of family stuff.  We are also marching in a parade (weather permitting) on Saturday in Mont Vernon

Alex Preston made it to the top three on American Idol.  Since he graduated from the school where I teach this has been quite exciting.  Unfortunately, he didn't make the final two but we are all very proud of our "hometown" boy.  We know that he will make the most of this opportunity and look forward to what is to come in his future.

Upcoming Events

Interweave Knitting Lab in Manchester, NH - May 15-18 (I will attend the marketplace on Sunday - no classes for me this year.)

http://www.interweaveknittinglab.com/ehome/index.php?eventid=73662&tabid=160345&

Rhinebeck in October! I am officially going again this year.  Reservations have been made!

http://www.sheepandwool.com